The 8-th EAG Plenary session was held in the Issyk Kul region (Kyrgyzstan) on 16-17 July, 2008. Among the participants of the Plenary were delegations from the EAG member-states (Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan), as well as representatives from states and organizations - observers to the EAG (Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, India, Italy, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Turkey, the UK, Ukraine, the USA, CIS Executive Committee, EBRD, EEC, FATF, IMF, OSCE, UNODC and World Bank).
The Plenary discussed and has approved the FATF, MONEYVAL and the EAG Mutual Evaluation Report on the Russian Federation, as well as the recommendations to the Russian Federation on elimination of drawbacks in Russian AML/CFT system, revealed during the mission. This Report was approved at the FATF and MONEYVAL Plenary meetings on 19 June and 11 July respectively. The Plenary also approved the Progress reports of China and Kyrgyzstan on implementation of mutual evaluations’ recommendations.
The Plenary heard a report on the situation in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the view of the FATF public statement on AML/CFT situation in these countries. The Plenary welcomed commitment of Uzbekistan to enhance cooperation and to start a constructive AML/CFT dialog with the states and international organizations, and voiced a hope that this country would take concrete steps to restore all the components of the AML/CFT system. The Plenary confirmed the EAG readiness to provide to Uzbekistan the necessary assistance regarding this issue, and decided to send to Uzbekistan a group of experts for on-site evaluation visit by October 2008.
The discussion by the Plenary of the Report on evaluation of Tadzhikistan AML/CFT system was postponed till December 2008 due to the fact that the Report prepared by the World Bank, was not provided to the EAG. Tadzhikistan should grant permission to submit the Report to the EAG Secretariat by October 15, 2008.
The Plenary also discussed the issues on the EAG typology research in AML/CFT and on technical assistance to be rendered to the EAG member-states aimed at creation and improvement of national AML/CFT systems.
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